Race a Virtual Tie
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for every life-saving treatment, for every next step, for every care in the world. Cleveland Clinic. It's Thursday, August 29th, right now on CNN This Morning. A virtual tie, new polling shows just how tight the race for the White House is in the critical Sun Belt. And... We wanted to come by to remind you that our nation is counting on you. We're so proud of you and everything you've done.

High schools, restaurants, Harrison walls making their way across South Georgia as they get ready for tonight's big interview right here on CNN. And both candidates have said that they are comfortable with live unmuted microphones to mute or not to mute. Harris's campaign wants live microphones. Will Trump's team agree? We're going to ask his campaign senior advisor ahead. And this.

The best thing for American workers, union and non-union alike, is rising wages, investing in American manufacturing, and investing in American workers, closing down that stuff. Vying for the union vote. Both Trump and Vance are in the Rust Belt today talking about the economy and manufacturing in key battleground states ahead of Labor Day.

All right, 6 a.m. here in Washington, a live look at the Washington Monument. The White House is in there somewhere. Good morning, everyone. I'm Casey Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us. There are just 68 days until Election Day. And tonight at 9 p.m., a CNN exclusive, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz will sit down for their first joint interview as the Democratic ticket.

- Thank you, I appreciate that.

That's stop for barbecue in Savannah, Georgia, where they are going to continue their bus tour. The big question, of course, for the Harris campaign. Can they put Georgia and the rest of the Sunbelt states back in play for Democrats? If they can, they will open so many more paths to 270 electoral votes. Remember, Biden unexpectedly flipped Georgia in 2020, but he was badly trailing there earlier this summer.

Now we have this new Fox News poll. It shows Trump and Harris neck and neck, not just in Georgia, but also in the Sunbelt states of Arizona, Nevada, North Carolina. If you take a look at the same Fox News polls taken earlier in the year while President Joe Biden was still in the race, Trump was the clear favorite, five to six point lead safely outside the margin of error.

So then Trump was winning. Now it's basically tied. Sources I've talked to in both parties say that Kamala Harris hasn't nailed these states down yet, especially Georgia. And the big question is whether she can. They do say she has an opportunity that Biden never had.

And Trump seems to be quite aware of it because he is suddenly trying to end a longstanding feud with the state's Republican governor, Brian Kemp. This is Georgia's Republican governor, who he had mocked on stage at a rally earlier this month. He's a bad guy. He's a disloyal guy. And he's a very average governor. Little Brian, little Brian Kemp. Bad guy. But think of it.

I got this guy, just think. Late last week, though, Kemp got a public thank you from Trump. And today, Kemp will co-headline a fundraiser for the Republican nominee, a show of unity reportedly made possible with some assistance from the Republican vice presidential nominee, J.D. Vance.

The president has some personal disagreements with Brian Kemp and Brian Kemp has some personal disagreements with the president, but they're both big enough to put the country over personal interests. Donald Trump, despite the fact that he has disagreements with a number of people who have endorsed him, he's willing to say we are the big tent party. We stand for common sense and sanity and we've got to kick that insane politician named Kamala Harris out of the White House. We're going to do what Donald Trump loves to do to people who don't do their jobs.

You are fired, Kamala Harris. You're out of there. It's done.

All right, joining me now to discuss Stephen Collinson, CNN Politics senior reporter, Kendra Barkoff, former press secretary for Joe Biden during his vice presidency, Sarah Longwell, Republican strategist and the executive director of the Republican Accountability Project, and Mike Dubke, former Trump White House communications director. Welcome to all of you. Thank you so much for being here. Good morning. Sarah Longwell, I actually want to start with you. These are registered voters. It's a Fox News poll. I think it's most interesting because it kind of shows the movement in the race from Biden and Harris across

the Sun Belt and it really will change the conversation about the path to 70 if she can get the states in play you're talking to voters all the time what is it about have this region the country North Carolina's also now in play what are voters telling you about what she needs to do to actually at convert this yeah I mean look here's what happened

Joe Biden, for a long time, he was lagging with his own base of voters, right? I mean, I was talking to sort of soft Democrats all the time who just thought Biden was too old. And so Kamala Harris, and this is it's almost been miraculous, but she's put that coalition back together in a matter of a month. And so now you're in sort of the persuasion part, right, where she's got to figure out how to get to swing voters who

you know what i've heard from voters about kamala harris uh now for years is they're like well i don't know anything about her i don't see her i don't know what she does right and so she's having this moment right now to sort of reintroduce herself to these voters and i've done nothing but focus groups since this race change like i'm doing them almost every day now because i'm trying to get a handle on what voters are thinking and post dnc what they've been saying is you know i like her positive message i still need to learn more about

but right now it's a big contrast with what they talked about the RNC as a doom and gloom type event. And they were sort of tired of the negative message.

And so they're kind of into what she's selling and they're taking a look at her for the first time and thinking, you know, I could get there, but they're not there yet. And so I think what you're seeing in those numbers is she's put her coalition back together and now she's got to figure out how to get to, you know, and a lot of that is young voters, it's black voters, it's Hispanic voters that Biden was lagging with. Now she's got to figure out how do I get more sort of

white working class voters maybe white working class women as I think a place where she can really push ahead because Donald Trump as you can see his support is very consistent he's hit a ceiling so now it's can she pick up the rest of those margins now the most the third parties moved out of this race yeah and Mike Dupkip I'm curious what you think about this because when I talk to Republicans they will say yes Harris is doing much better

in some of these Sunbelt states. Most of the smart ones I'm talking to don't yet think she's there yet, especially in Georgia. They're not sure Georgia's on the map. - They're super smart people you're talking to then. Because there is two, it's been 39 days since she's been in the race.

And she's had three really major events, the announcement, the pick of vice president, and then the DNC that just concluded last week. And so I think when this poll was taken, it was probably over the weekend, and that is the high watermark for her. I agree with Sarah, the Democrats have come home. So those that felt that Joe Biden was too old have come home. But now this is that neck and neck race. There's two paths to victory, one in the industrial north, the blue

ball as it's called and I call it the social yes and it yes and then you know I don't know why in Georgia I'm Arizona Nevada so it is a toss-up race and but it's always been a toss-up race so I think that there's been momentum over 39 days we'll see if that momentum starts to come to a halt when she finally does a one-on-one well two-on-one interview tonight

and but the race is on. So let's talk about the interview because it is as you point out they're going to be there together and Kendra Barkoff the Wall Street Journal editorial board framed it this way don't think Kamala Harris's handlers are shielding her for tough questions question mark consider that her first sit down interview with the press this week she's bringing along a crutch

running mate Tim Walls, the vice president's campaign, is finally allowed to take questions from our Dana Bash here at CNN. But instead of one-on-one, Ms. Bash will have to deal with the Veep and Mr. Walls. This is a deliberate attempt to limit the potential exposure risks

for the vice president. You've been in the White House, you've worked on decisions like this. There's clearly a reason that they wanted this to be her first foray out there. Why are they doing this? What impact does it have? - Well, look, if you look at the history of every single presidential, Democratic presidential candidate that has done their first interview,

after the DNC convention, they have always been jointly together. You saw Obama and Biden doing it together. You saw John McCain, I mean, John McCain obviously is Republican, but this is a historical interview that they have normally and typically done together. So I think people making a huge deal out of the fact that she's not doing it by herself

I think it's a ridiculous thing to make a big deal out of. I would also say that this is an important place to show the two of them together, how they are together. We've seen it on the campaign trail. We've seen it on the stage. But this showing how they interact together is going to be an important thing for voters to see and for voters to do. And I'm sure they will do individual interviews as time goes by. But this is a historical interview that they will do together.

together to show who they are. - Steven Collinson, I mean, this is, they've waited a little bit of time to do this to the point that they were getting criticism for not doing it sooner. But I think that the critical piece of this is what Sarah was talking about, which is that voters, swing voters are saying, well, okay, I'm interested in this, I'm paying attention, right? But I don't really know yet what she's actually gonna do. Are we gonna start to see that tonight?

I think in that sense this is actually an opportunity for the vice president, although everyone is portraying it as this big hurdle she has to go across. You're right, it took them a while to get this together. That offered an opening to the Trump campaign because they believe that she's not a nimble political athlete, she struggles on policy questions. I think it's fair to say she is someone through her history as a lawyer and a prosecutor

that has been a lot more comfortable asking the questions instead of answering them, especially on ideological issues where sometimes it seems she's not quite moored to any particular political position. So she has a chance to get it across. I think what she has to do is get out of this without anything that interrupts that momentum. The key thing here is it's unscripted. Everything else that's happened in this campaign rollout has been

managed by the campaign. This time she's walking a little bit of a tightrope. And Kendra, I really appreciate the spin on what the interview is, but every example that you used, those individuals have sat down for one-on-one interviews with reporters up to this point. It's been 39 days since she has been in this race. She has not done a single interview. The media has been jockeying for this. So I appreciate that, you know, the historic nature of this is what Democrats do afterwards.

But I'm worried that it's a low bar for her, frankly, that she hasn't done this and everyone's saying, well, she can't handle questions very well. Let's see tonight. If I'm Dana Bash, what I'm asking, I'm just directing my questions straight to Vice President Harris.

I'm just, I'm ignoring Walls. I think he's got the most difficult job of being a middle-aged white guy that has to interrupt two women having a conversation. - Well, he just shouldn't interrupt them then. - Exactly, exactly right. - Look, I understand from a communication standpoint, she's having enormous momentum, right? She's had like a seven, eight point swing since she got in this race.

She was not trying to put a filter between her and the American people. I don't think that that is a stupid thing to do. Obviously, she's going to have to sit for interviews. Makes total sense that the very first one, she sits down with her vice president. It's just a natural thing people do. And I'll tell you, that's...

Maybe people are playing the expectations game. Obviously, we've all been seeing over the last few years, the Republicans put together a lot of super cuts of her kind of losing her train of thought or make it sound, you know, like some words out and stuff. I've been genuinely impressed with how she has sounded since she got to sort of be her own voice, right? I think it's hard to be the vice president and carry somebody else's message, but she seems pretty comfortable so far carrying her own message. But I think tonight she is going to have to answer policy questions. But if she does that well, uh,

I think that after that, they should do 100 interviews because I think when you put a lot of pressure on just one interview, it raises the stakes in a way that I don't think is productive. They should just be... Walls did something with Runner's World, and he also did one with a guy where he was talking about...

How important managing the gutters are on your house? Oh, yes, we shared that yesterday. The subway. More of that stuff, I think, is what they need to do, not just all these high-pressure kind of situations. But they've set this all up on themselves. Yeah, but she's answered questions from reporters. She's done gaggles on the plane. I mean, it's not like she hasn't talked to reporters.

She has not sat down for a minute. Well, I think the issue, though, Kendra, is that her performances in past interviews have been speed bumps for her, to use one phrase. And in talking to my sources, the interview she did with Lester Holt not only did it

sort of, it seemed to have rattled her, right? Like this is part of why the question of this interview has been such a big one for them, no? But, you know, I will say when I worked for Vice President Biden, every interview that he went into, because he had a boss, there was a different level of expectation there, right? He had a boss that he had to report to, Barack Obama. And so every interview, there's a different bar when you're not the boss.

And so now that she has taken, sort of she is the presidential nominee and she is going to be moving forward with this, there's a little bit of a different, there's a different game that's going on here and it's a different dynamic. Sarah, if you're Harris and you're thinking about these policy questions in terms of trying to convert swing voters, where are the places that you see Harris getting the most bang for her buck in terms of breaking with the current president?

Oh, breaking. So here's one of the things that's been interesting to me is how much she has been able to not have to own Joe Biden's record, especially on the economy. And so for better or worse, right or wrong, voters are frustrated with the economy, even though at a macro level, it's been doing very well when it comes to prices of food, when it comes to housing. You know, voters still really feel behind and they blame Biden. They seem to be giving her a fresh look on the economy. And so I think for her being able to both sympathize

say the good parts of the Biden recovery that America recovered after the pandemic, but that we're not doing nearly enough for the middle class. You heard some of that in her DNC speech. I think she's really got to go on offense with the economy and she's got to go on offense on immigration. That's another thing she did in her speech. It's one of the biggest vulnerabilities that she has with these swing voters. And she's got to find a way not to own that because that's one of the other things

People know very little about her record as vice president, but I think if they know anything, some of it is that she was made the border czar and that it didn't work out well for her. Yeah, I think that's very interesting. There's visible frustration from the Trump campaign that they've not been able to link her irrevocably with the president on the economy especially. That economic plan she rolled out, the populist price gouging plan,

A lot of economists thought it's a terrible idea, but it may well turn out to be very good politics because it's playing exactly into the major concern of a lot of voters.

But she has to keep that going for two months. If Trump could actually focus on this issue, she might be a little bit more vulnerable than she already is. Yeah, except some of her worst policies, in my opinion, she just copied from Trump. Trump also has populist economic policies, and so conservatives are hitting them on it. But that's what Trump does, too. Yeah. No, the biggest frustration I have for the Trump campaign is that they're not saying Biden-Harris, Biden-Harris, Biden-Harris all the time.

I think you're absolutely right on this. If they focus on the issues and we focus on policy, which hopefully she gets asked about tonight. I have full faith in Dan. I do too. I really do too. I thought she did excellent at the debates. If they focus on policy, that is going to be a net advantage, net plus for the Trump campaign. All right.

okay our panel is going to be back don't forget tonight on cnn the most anticipated interviews so far of kamala harris's run here at the top of the ticket harris and tim walls will sit down with dana bash for their first interview harrison walls a cnn exclusive begins tonight at 9 00 p.m eastern i'm coming up here on cnn this morning the debate between donald trump kamala harris less than two weeks away the format's still up in the air trump's campaign senior advisor joins me to talk about that plus

Parents and stress, do they go together like toddlers and tantrums? That is a depressing sentence to have to read. Parental stress though is now becoming a public health issue. There's a warning from the surgeon general we'll dig in. And an illegal photo op Donald Trump accused of breaking the law while at Arlington National Cemetery this week. Kamala Harris is disgraceful and she wants to yell at Donald Trump because he showed up. She can go to hell.

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It is amazing to me that you have apparently somebody at Arlington Cemetery, some staff member, had a little disagreement with somebody and they have turned, the media has turned this into a national news story.

Donald Trump's campaign now defending his visit to Arlington National Cemetery following a reported altercation between his team and cemetery staff members. On Monday, Trump visited Arlington to mark the three-year anniversary of the Abbey Gate bombing in Kabul that killed 13 American service members during the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. He first, you see it here, laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. That is a spot where photography is allowed.

After that, Trump's campaign says he was invited by families of some of those killed at Abbey Gate to visit the gravesites of their loved ones. And this is in an area of Arlington that's known as Section 60.

Here, photography is much more restricted and partisan political activity is explicitly forbidden by federal law. At this point, a cemetery employee reportedly attempted to prevent Trump's photographer from accompanying him in accordance with that law. An Arlington spokesperson confirmed to CNN, quote, "There was an incident," end quote, "and a report was filed."

They didn't provide additional details. Trump later posted a video on TikTok, you're watching part of it now, that shows him at the gravesite. That same video included criticism of the Biden administration.

And Trump's running mate, J.D. Vance, is using this incident and the Afghanistan withdrawal to attack Kamala Harris this way. To have those 13 Americans lose their lives and not fire a single person is disgraceful. Kamala Harris is disgraceful. We're going to talk about a story out of those 13 brave, innocent Americans who lost their lives. It's that Kamala Harris is so asleep at the wheel that she won't even do an investigation into what happened. And she wants to yell at Donald Trump because he showed up. She can...

she can go to hell panels back I wanna talking in a second about JD Vance and how he spoke about Kamala Harris there in that clip but first Mike I just wanna talk about families here because I think that this is the this is the piece of this story I that I see there was that an altercation in part because this cemetery employee was trying to protect families who may not want to allow photography of their loved ones great sites and there was a family whose

headstone appeared in that photo with Trump who did not give Trump permission to be there. It landed in these campaign materials that he put out. The New York Times has a statement from the sister of Sergeant Marcus Sano, and they say, quote, "The Trump campaign staffers did not adhere to the rules that were set in place for this visit

to the other fallen soldier's grave site, Staff Sergeant Hoover in Section 60, which lays directly next to my brother's grave. How, was this the right thing to do for the Trump team? I mean, it seems clear that they broke the law here.

I think that, let's just accept all of the facts to be true. That he laid the marker at the grave of the unknown soldier, that they went there, they were invited by the other families, and all of this. I understand the reasoning behind doing the visit on Monday, and I understand after being invited to visit the gravesite, which, you know, if the family invited former President Trump to visit the gravesite,

I think he had every right to do that. On the photograph, I mean, it is very easy to blur out other images, logos, names, whatever the case may be. The Trump campaign should have done that. But to the point, it really, the first part of the day went, I think, the way that they were hoping it would. The second part of the day turned into a kerfuffle that we're now talking about three days later. So,

Should they have blanked out the names of the others? Probably. But this has now become just-- it's a--

No one is trying to take anything away from somebody trying to pay respects to fallen soldiers at the invitation of their families. However, the law is around partisan political activity, which if your goal is simply to honor the families, you can do that without having pictures taken of it. Right. It's completely fair game for them to bring up the Afghan issue, the Abbey Gate, how the withdrawal was managed.

But that particular section of the cemetery, for anyone who lived through 9/11, it's particularly poignant because it's almost within sight of the Pentagon where one of the planes went in. You see all the young people lying there, ages 18, 19, 20, who died in the wars that followed that terrorist attack.

caught up in a political event. It seems undignified, and it does seem a real shame for it to happen there, especially. Well, and to use it in a TikTok video that explicitly attacks the president, I mean, that's the part I'm tripping on.

No, and I think you should trip on it. And they could have handled it better. I'm not in any way disagreeing. And frankly, Stephen, to your point, this is a section of the cemetery that's new in the sense that families, this is not from World War I or the Civil War. This is very, and you need to tread carefully here. So I'm in no way defending the political use of this. What I am saying is the...

going to the cemetery and honoring those who have fallen, given the Afghanistan withdrawal, that was something that made total sense. They could have handled the aftermath of this better. Here's the thing. Donald Trump has literally never...

been good at honoring America's soldiers. Like this is a guy who said that people who died for the country were suckers and losers. And like every time he goes out there and tries to sort of performatively utilize dead soldiers and people who've fallen for the country, like

He does it in this schlocky political way. And so this is like par for the course with him. He has no real sense of dignity around this. He has no real sense of commitment to these soldiers. He uses people, them as political props. And then behind the scenes, he criticizes their sacrifice. There is real, there is the, the,

military families and especially the one that asked for the former president to visit the grave there is there is a reason for that there is a and then they treated it as a photo op well it it could have very easily not been a non-story for this for this week as well camera

Well, I mean, this was a campaign event to begin with, right? His campaign staff were the ones who reached out that had the conversations to negotiate with the cemetery to begin with. This is what he does. He doubles down when there's been a mistake that's made. To your point, he called, you know, folks and dead soldiers, suckers and losers. He made fun of John McCain. I mean, this is

he has a history here of bullying and and doubling down on things that he should take a step back and maybe say like okay should have done something different I should I made a mistake or whatever it is and he just doesn't do that ever one vice presidential nominee is time hair Harris to quote-unquote go to hell which

We'll circle back on that. Coming up here on CNN This Morning, trying to win over union voters, Harris and Trump delivering their pitches, who's making the best case? Plus, popular tourist destination in Greece coping with 80,000 pounds of rotting fish? One of five things you have to see this morning. Do we, though?

All right, welcome back. Donald Trump, Kamala Harris set to debate on ABC for the first time September 10th. But how the debate will look still up in the air. Both campaigns have been accusing each other of not agreeing to certain rules. This week, Donald Trump suggested he was open to some changes from the rules that were set for the CNN debate.

Would you want the microphones muted in the debate whenever you're not speaking? We agreed to the same rules. I don't know. It doesn't matter to me. I'd rather have it probably on. But the agreement was that it would be the same as it was last time. In that case, it was muted. I didn't like it the last time, but it worked out fine. Now a spokesman for the Harris campaign tells CNN that both candidates agreed on leaving the mics unmuted.

Our preference, along with Donald Trump himself, is for unmuted microphones. I think the question that you'd have to ask is to Donald Trump and his team, are they in agreement between themselves on how we should approach this debate? Because we are in agreement with Donald Trump that these should be live and unmuted microphones. All right, joining us now is Jason Miller. He's the senior advisor to the Trump campaign. Jason, welcome back to CNN This Morning. Thank you so much for being here. Why do you want the mics muted?

Well, we've already agreed to the rules that we had with the CNN debate, and not only have we agreed, but the Harris camp has agreed as well. We had the rules last week. Both sides agreed that we would stay with the CNN format, which I thought both Jake and Dana did an excellent job. I think CNN as a network did a very good job, very fair job with the debate, and we hope that there is the same performance on ABC's end. But then, strangely, over the weekend, the Harris camp decided to change their minds and want to try to make an issue out of the already agreed-to format.

And Casey, I think really what was going on, I think is a bit more sinister. I think that the Harris camp was trying to come up with a distraction on the third anniversary of the horrific killing of 13 Americans at Abbey Gate in Afghanistan. Of course, Kamala Harris was the last one in the room for that decision with Joe Biden. And I think that that's what this was all about. They wanted to distract away from Kamala Harris's accountability on that issue because both sides had already agreed. We've agreed again, rules are locked in. They're the same as it was for CNN.

- Are you afraid that if you unmuted the mics, the debate would be worse for Mr. Trump? - Well, President Trump is gonna be fine regardless of what the format is, but it's already locked in. That's the whole point is that it was agreed to, the same as it was for CNN, the same as it will be for ABC, and both camps had already agreed to this. In fact, the Harris camp came back with a whole host of other changes that they wanted, but let's put this distraction aside. This is about Kamala Harris finally being held

accountable. She can't be talking about the future when she's the one who created the nightmare that we're currently living in. She created the problems with our economy, our border, the global chaos, and you can't be asking for a promotion when really voters should be voting you out of office.

Jason, I also want to ask you about something else that we saw from your boss, Mr. Trump. He posted a pretty crude, reposted a pretty crude image or comment, I should say, about Kamala Harris, the sitting vice president. It also mentioned Hillary Clinton, who, of course, Mr. Trump ran against in 2016. What would you say to the vice president of the United States today?

about the comment that he reposted

- Well, I saw the social media post. I have not discussed that with the president. I don't know if the president even saw the comment that was on there or simply the picture. But I would say with regard to Kamala Harris, the attacks that had been levied by Kamala Harris' both the campaign, by Harris' allies against President Trump, not just recently, but over the past year and a half, two years, ever since he came down the escalator, quite frankly, in the case of many left of center people, have been quite horrific. All of this though, Casey, is a distraction

for the real issues that are going on right now. - Do you think as horrific as what was reposted? I mean, do you, I mean-- - Oh, 100 times worse, Casey, 100 times worse. And here's the thing, there's social media posts, and we're talking about issues-- - But they haven't been sexual in nature in this way.

Again, I haven't discussed that with the president. I don't know if the president even saw the comment that was on there. That's not something that I have asked, but we have real people who are struggling with inflation that is hurting this country, with the border crisis. President Trump was just at the border this past week honoring those who've been killed by this migrant invasion, Jocelyn Nungari and Rachel Moore and Laken Riley, three names I do not hear, I do not believe we'll hear from Kamala Harris.

at the debate on the 10th. That's assuming that Kamala Harris shows up to the debate, which I imagine that she will, because Americans deserve to hear why Kamala Harris has been in hiding for 39 days. Of course, we'll hear from Kamala Harris and Tim Walz when they sit down with Dana to air this evening on CNN. And look, Dana's one of the best in the business, if not the best in the business. I don't think Dana will allow Kamala Harris to hide behind Tim Walz. I think Dana will ask Kamala Harris why she thinks she deserves a promotion

and why she hasn't done any of the things over the past three and a half years that she says that she'll do in the future.

Jason, before I let you go, I want to ask you about one other issue, one story that there was a Politico story about a new book that's set to be published next week from your boss, the former president, that says that Mark Zuckerberg, the head of Meta, plotted against him during the 2020 election and that the Meta chief executive would, quote, spend the rest of his life in prison, end quote. We also, of course, saw Zuckerberg

Zuckerberg sent a letter to Congress expressing regret about some of the things Facebook did during the last election around misinformation. Does the president, does the former president feel this way about Mark Zuckerberg? Does he believe that he should go to jail?

Well, President Trump certainly had a right to be angry at the time, and especially looking back at the censorship that went on in 2020. I mean, they used this guise of Russian misinformation to outright censor a story that turned out to be very true with the Hunter Biden lap.

And it did manipulate the election. In fact, a post-election study for the Media Research Center said that one out of every seven Biden voter would have looked to go a different way, possibly to President Trump, if they knew about the truth of the foreign business dealings and everything else on Hunter Biden's laptop, specific to Joe Biden and the international, what we would say is corruption. And is this a jailable offense in your view, in the former president's view?

I'm not a lawyer. I'll leave that up to the lawyers to go and decide on that. But I do think that there was blatant election interference, and there should be some accountability to that. It can't just be a talking point from the left. People have to be held responsible, especially those 51 intelligence officers, for intentionally, very specifically, knowing that that was a lie and pushing this Russian disinformation hoax.

But again, the important thing here is it's not back in 2020. We're talking about the future, but a future where we're going to have record low inflation, a secure border. We're not going to have these wars popping up everywhere. And that's where I think the difference is in this campaign is that President Trump's going to put more money back in people's pockets, but he's telling them exactly how he's going to do it. We don't know from Kamala Harris. Maybe we'll find out from Dana tonight how she's going to pay for any of her plans.

All right. Jason Miller, thank you very much for coming on today. I appreciate your time. Hope you'll come back. Thank you so much. All right. Still ahead here on CNN this morning, a battle of the VPs, both Tim Walz and J.D. Vance, speaking at the same convention, vying for the same union to support their ticket.

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We'll be right back.

Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz trying to secure support from a key labor union yesterday. He met with the International Association of Firefighters. That's one of the largest labor unions in the country. Walz is the first union member on a presidential ticket since Ronald Reagan. Speaking to that group in Boston, he appealed by focusing on Kamala Harris as a pro-union candidate.

When we're in office, we'll make sure you have all the resources and protections you need to do your jobs and your service is respected and that you come home safe every night. We know exactly

who built this country. It's people like the folks in this room, firefighters, police officers, construction trades, teachers and nurses and veterans who contributed their contributions to our nations long after they got out of military service. It was you who built the middle class. And we know that when unions are strong, America's strong. The Firefighters Union has yet to endorse in the presidential race. So today, J.D. Vance heading to speak before that same convention.

We want you to have safe jobs. We want you to be able to do what you can and do what you need to do without being destroyed by our public leadership. And we want you to have good wages for a fair day's work. That's true for the union workers, and that's true for the non-union workers too.

All right, joining me now, AFL-CIO President Liz Schuller. Liz, thank you so much for being on the show today. I appreciate your time. So you, the AFL-CIO has, of course, endorsed the Harris ticket. I want to say that up front. We're also a couple days away from Labor Day, where we'll be marking the contributions of all of the people who work hard every day for a living.

The reality is you have lost some ground among union rank and file union members. Democrats have lost some ground. When I talk to Debbie Dingell about going to union halls, you know, outside Detroit, she will say there's a lot of work to do. Why is that? Why is that happening? Considering that the leadership of many of the unions are on the Democratic side.

- Well, we're still, of course, getting information out about what this administration has done, 'cause as you know, often there's a disconnect between what happens in Washington and what happens in communities. And I think people are still getting to know Kamala Harris and connecting the dots with that record of the past three and a half years that she and Joe Biden have made all these investments in infrastructure and created new union jobs in manufacturing. And I think sometimes the narrative

doesn't match up with what people's experience is. And so I think that's our job as unions to make sure that that information gets out on the ground. - What do you want to hear from, Harris is sitting down with Tim Walz, her vice presidential pick tonight, with Dan Abash. And one question that's relevant for I know a lot of your members, especially in the Midwest,

is this mandate around electric vehicles, the way that the Biden administration has pushed a set of rules, basically, that will accelerate the EV market, potentially at the expense of the market for gas cars. And that's something that a lot of people are very invested in. Do you want to see her continue the Biden administration policy? Do you want her to say tonight that that's where she is? Or do you want to see her change and make a break from where the Biden administration is on this? Well,

Well, we don't see it. It's often set up as a false choice. We don't see it as that. We think you can have a clean environment and good union jobs. And you've seen this investment that the Biden administration has made. It is, you know, we have labor standards in these investments and we're seeing electric school buses picking up children now that school's getting started because of these investments and they are creating good union jobs in Georgia. So I think we can do both.

And I think it is- - But do you want Kamala Harris to do anything differently compared to where the Biden administration has been? - She has been, she has a strong record in the environment and clean energy, and that has been emblematic of this administration. I believe she will continue on that path in creating good union jobs and clean energy. - All right, Liz Schuller, the president of the AFL-CIO. Thank you so much for your time today. I hope you'll come back on the show. - I hope so too, appreciate it. - All right, coming up next here on CNN This Morning, overwhelmed and burned out. Why the US Surgeon General says parental stress

has become a significant public health issue. You have four minutes to get Roscoe to the vet, which should be fine. You're super late for your marketing meeting. I'm going to be late to my first soccer practice. You having a bad day? It could not get any worse.

So right now, as in 6.54 a.m. on the East Coast right now, one of the most stressful times in any parent's day, getting everybody ready out the door on time. I just want to thank my husband for doing that every morning for both of us. Thank you, darling. If you are feeling burned out or overwhelmed, you are not alone. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy says that parental stress is a growing public health issue.

This intensified culture of comparison that we're all living in, that's really potentiated and fed by social media and the online environment, where parents are looking around them and comparing themselves to sometimes hundreds of other parents, some of whom they know, some of whom they don't know, but they often come away feeling worse about themselves and like they're falling short as parents. So according to Dr. Murthy, who is a father of two, the U.S. needs a shift in policy and cultural norms because mothers and fathers

who work many more hours than they did decades ago, and they also spend many more hours every week on primary child care. Our panel is back. I think this might be the one thing that we are all in unanimity on today, which is that we're all parents at this table, and unfortunately I'm told from the parents of the empty nesters that, like, mine are little, 5 and 18 months. It apparently doesn't... Never ends. Never.

- If they're gonna take away phones in schools, they should take it away from parents as well. 'Cause if he's saying this is a growing crisis, it's been a crisis for centuries, raising little kids. And just get rid of the social media and the fear of missing out or the whatever that all is,

your good parents, take care of your children. That's all you need to know. Well, I think that what he seems to be saying here, Sarah, is that the way our modern life has evolved has made it harder for parents. Parenting is more intensive than it ever was from the primary

caregivers from the primary, from parents. There's less input from extended family and there's not a lot of support out there for in terms of whether it's your extended family being around but also from society itself.

Yeah, I don't know. I mean, look, I do think it has to do some with social media, although you could take that social media frame and apply it to just about any part of life in the way that it amplifies things. I do think it has actually a lot more to do with this idea of not having extended family around. I mean, it just used to be that there were grandparents living in the house or your family was all nearby. I know for us, like...

you know, we all live far away from our families and both sets of grandparents are hours away. And so there's not somebody who you can just be like, hey, just grab the kid, you know, and you find yourself having to do pick up, drop off, breakfast, get them out the door.

and then everybody's working from the moment you wake up because you've got your phone now. So it is just a modern thing that we're all trying to figure out how to navigate. Right. Well, and especially post-pandemic. And the pandemic period was so stressful for parents as well. It was. But I also think that there are certain policies that

we have in place in the United States that don't help us, right? Our paid leave isn't what it should be. Our childcare isn't what it should be. And so there are policies that need to be put in place to move our country in a way that I think will help parents to achieve what they need, which is a less stressful life. It's really hard. And so I think that there's some stuff that the Senate and Congress and the President should be doing on that issue too. Yeah, I think

it's especially problem for low-income families and this is where it plays into the politics is not just a social issue what do you do with the kids in the summer during the long you know school vacation if you don't have the money to put them in camps and everything else this is part of the pressure on working Americans this is part of the pressure that's playing into this election having said that I think in my 20 odd years of being a parent

I think there's more consciousness about this issue now. And especially with the working from home from the pandemic, that has many bad aspects to it. But it has allowed, I think, some more flexibility for parents to leave early to go and get the kids or if the kid's sick to stay at home and work. So that has changed a little bit. Fair enough. All right.

This morning, I'll leave you with this. Ten years ago, President Barack Obama wore a tan suit to a daily press briefing. And the reaction, well, it was a lot. Think about this picture.

When was the last time you saw President Obama swathed in beige and earth tones for crying out loud? And I thought this was a metaphor for his lack of seriousness. And only the Democrats and only liberals could actually elect a guy with a tanned suit. Wear a dark color suit when you're a dude. It's real simple. Or go for all out seersucker. Seersucker? You want him to talk about fighting domestic terrorism looking like Mark Twain?

simpler times? The former president marked the anniversary with a tweet praising the tan suit worn by Kamala Harris on the opening night of the DNC. Obama insisting it's still a good look.

Mike Dubke, where do you come down on this? I wish I had known we were doing this. I would have worn my tan suit today. This was an accident. To be clear, I wore tan. I do think it's a good look. I'm for it. But, you know, Nixon was against a brown suit back in the day. He said, you know, real politicians don't wear brown suits. Can we go back to arguing about suits?

Please. Yeah, those are the days. Simpler times. All right. Thanks, guys, for joining us this morning. Thanks to all of you for being with us this morning. I'm Casey Hunt. And don't forget, tonight on CNN, one of the most anticipated interviews of this election cycle, Kamala Harris, Tim Walz will sit down with Dana Bash for the first interview. Harris and Walz, a CNN exclusive, begins tonight at 9 p.m. Eastern. Don't go anywhere. CNN News Central starts right now.

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